All right, back in business once more. Hopefully we won’t be hit by another freak storm this weekend, but really it seems like the power dies if someone so much as coughs too loudly. Let’s get to the news before it happens again. Here’s what’s going down:

Zynga starts getting hit with lawsuits regarding allegations of insider trading, with underwriters paid to help insiders offload stock before it fell. Also known as “Tuesday on Wall Street.”

Not to be outdone, EA has also filed suit that Zynga copied The Sims Social to create The Ville. Man, who do you root for in that fight? (The answer is EA, seriously.)

Ubisoft’s Uplay exposes players to an exploit that allows websites access to, and control over, a user’s computer. It’s like they want people to pirate their games.

The Old Republic pulls the pin and goes free-to-play. Should’ve kept the base, BioWare! And the base I mean your playerbase. By making KotOR III instead.

Sony posts a sizable loss of some $312 million for the first quarter of 2012, including losses in the games division. Tempting to blame the Vita, but their true problems run deeper.

Squenix has an ambitious ten-year plan for Dragon Quest X. It sounds crazy until you realize they’ve been running Final Fantasy XI for at least that long.

Rumors abound regarding Bethesda and the STALKER series, Take Two posts a lower earnings report due to unrealistic expectations, and more!

Once again, my evening was brought to a screeching halt by a combination of mother nature and the inadequacies of our local power grid. This time it tricked me into a false sense of security, as we didn’t lose power during the actual storm, but instead three hours later when it had cleared up. As I was gathering news links at the time, you can imagine my surprise.

Anyway, didn’t come back on until this morning and I had to start from scratch. Long story short, WHTW will be up tomorrow. Sorry, folks!

Ooof… man, what was I thinking? Don’t… nobody even tell me the damage. If I don’t see the bill, it doesn’t exist. I’ll pretend this big stack of games I bought just magically appeared there. Yeah, that works for me. Anyhow, it’s time to distract myself, and you, with the news:

Apple suffers a serious hack, allowing users to bypass some in-app purchases and get the goods for free. Welcome to the 99%, Apple users!

Meanwhile, Microsoft posted its first loss in 26 years. Strangely enough, they could probably commiserate with Nintendo, right down to the “constant media doom chorus” thing.

Yeah, yeah, another delay, forget about that. Civ V was engrossing and the Steam Summer Sale ends in a few hours and Witcher 2 is fifteen bucks what are you doing here I DON’T CARE IF YOU HATED THE GAME ON THE FLASH DEAL IT’S FIVE BUCKS GO GO GO

Well, I guess I’ll have to apologize after all. Sorry folks, it’s been unusually busy this weekend; had company over, cracked windshield, all sorts of fun. On top of that the heat wave finally broke today, so what little free time I had was gobbled up pretty quick. And maybe, possibly, Spec Ops: The Line turned out to be far more engrossing (if disturbing) than I anticipated. There was a Steam deal! I was weak willed! There was a warm sunbeam to nap in! I’m the victim, here!

New episode tomorrow Tuesday. I totally meant Tuesday the whole time, and definitely did not change that just now because of an inopportune computer crash that ate half the script. Stay tuned!

For those of you fortunate enough to not live in northern Illinois, we got whacked with what I can only describe as a reverse hurricane: a freakishly narrow storm front that lasted for about thirty minutes surrounded by clear blue sky. Suburban Chicago is no stranger to strange weather, but this was… new, to put it lightly. We lost power for pretty much the entire day, which means I didn’t get a scrap of work for WHTW done beyond news links. And honestly, there wasn’t a lot going on this week anyway, so if you don’t mind I’m taking an impromptu break and will have the next episode up next week.

Sorry, folks… actually, you know what, I’m not sorry. In a way, I think I needed this. We spent the day cutting down tree branches, clearing debris, and being disconnected (well, almost, thanks to my droid with the 3G connection), and between all that me and the old man tried to stay cool, kept the generator running for the fridge, drank a lot, and just relaxed. It’s been a stressful few weeks in general, a lot of behind-the-scenes drama, and sometimes it’s good to unplug once in a while.

Someone a lot smarter than me once said they spent the New York blackout a few years ago just unwinding on the patio with a cooler and nothing important to do, and it was one of the best days they’d had in a long time. There’s wisdom in that, my friends.

We’ll be back next week, I’ll see you all then! Until then… find some time to relax bit, all right? And while you’re at it, watch Haruka getting clobbered by a box. You’ll thank yourself for it later.

There are weeks, even single days, that make me want to crawl into a bunker with as much food, games, and quality booze as I can manage, seal that sucker up, and hide there for, I dunno, a year or so. But then I tell myself, “I know life sometimes seems bad, but at least you didn’t sign over the Running Man to MC Hammer.”

Moving this thing to Monday would solve so many problems. Of course, getting a new job would solve even more problems, and I’ve been having trouble with that, too. Yes, yet another week where I have to push WHTW back a day. Sorry folks, though in my defense I was slightly preoccupied with Father’s Day. And, okay, maybe I had a couple margaritas and fell asleep in the sun. It was a nice day out! Hope you got outside too, was a good day for it.

The conspiracy theorist in me suspects that Windows has built-in functions that detect whenever you’re about to say something bad about Microsoft, and crashes accordingly. How else could one explain that happening right as I’m writing up the podcast, thus losing a large chunk of progress? Other than more reasonable explanations and simple coincidence, I mean.

So yeah, had to rewrite most of the script and I now save compulsively as a result. E3 2012 episode will be up tomorrow. Sorry, folks ;_;

If covering the news has taught me anything, it’s that companies would openly shoot at each other Syndicate-style if only they could get away with it. Anyway, welcome back, on this lovely evening before E3 kicks off! Here’s what’s happening:

Silicon Knights loses in their lawsuit against Epic, and then loses the countersuit for damages. Expect Denis Dyack to insist that Too Human will continue… somehow.

Epic, by the way, rescued members of Big Huge Games, rolling them into a new studio and tasking them with another fantasy action-RPG. Talk about paying it forward.

Meanwhile, Activision settles out of court with West and Zampella, thus freeing Activision to keep making Call of Duty and spying on its own people. “But the future refused to change…”

CD Projekt reveals their non-Witcher property: Cyberpunk. Apparently that’s the title of a pen-and-paper game easily confused with Shadowrun.

Nintendo hosts a pre-E3 video demonstration showing off the Wii U… the exact same aspects we saw last year. Oh, and a classic-style controller and Nintendo-centric social network.

E3 predictions: Nintendo needs to have some game demos ready, Sony’s going to spin like an overclocked centrifuge, and Microsoft will be my cue to go get a drink.

A Final Fantasy Versus XIII trailer is mistaken for FFXV, Sony may have picked up Gaikai for PSN-related announcements, and more!

Evening, everyone. Tragedy strikes the nation as I learn that “grilling food in polite company” and “editing/recording the podcast” are mutually exclusive activities. Thus, What Happened This Week will be up tomorrow. Sorry for the delay folks, but in the meantime I hope you’re enjoying the holiday weekend! See you all tomorrow night!

“Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.” John Maynard Keynes said that, and I’d wager he knows a little more about the economy than you do, because he invented it! Yeah, the financial world is abuzz over Facebook’s IPO, and we’ve got our own take on that, along with a few other items of interest. Behold:

38 Studios (Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning) owes the state of Rhode Island $75 million in loan payments. I don’t even have a quip, you have to hear the whole crazy situation to believe it.

Facebook, as mentioned, went public, and then immediately flatlined before dropping a few bucks today. Cue me feeling smug in three… two…

Activision drops its suit against EA over the Infinity Ward fiasco, on revelation that they went to absurd lengths to dig up dirt on IW staff. Bobby Kotick, up to no good? Pshaw, sirrah.

Epic unveils the Unreal 4 engine, prompting a new wave of speculation as to how many shades of brown and grey it can render.

CD Projekt’s hiring for a modern IP. Given their work with fantasy IP, I expect good things. Difficult things that kill me in the tutorial, but good things all the same.

Diablo III goes live, then dies, then lives again, then dies again, and so on. Who could possibly have forseen difficulties with millions of players going online at once?

Heya folks! Due to unexpected interference from reality, What Happened This Week will be uploaded tomorrow instead of tonight. Fortunately, thanks to this happy accident – which in no way involved napping in a warm sunbeam listening to the Sox humiliate the Cubs – I’ll be able to gauge how Facebook’s doing on day two and whether what happened Friday is part of a long-term trend. Sorry for the hold up. I’ll see you all tomorrow night!